Health Gadgets for Women: The Best Devices to Support Your Health Through Perimenopause
- Michaela Newsom
- Jul 3
- 23 min read
KEY TAKEAWAYS
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Table of Contents
Why Health Gadgets Become More Important During Perimenopause
Many women notice changes during their forties that seem unrelated at first glance.
· Sleep becomes lighter.
· Recovery from exercise takes longer.
· Blood pressure creeps upwards.
· Weight becomes more difficult to manage.
· Anxiety increases.
· Brain fog appears.
· Energy becomes unpredictable.
These changes are often attributed solely to declining oestrogen, but the physiology is much more complex. Perimenopause represents a whole-body metabolic transition. Oestrogen influences virtually every organ system. Beyond its reproductive role, it helps regulate mitochondrial energy production, glucose metabolism, vascular function, inflammation, autonomic nervous system balance, muscle maintenance, bone remodelling, thermoregulation and brain function. As ovarian hormone production becomes increasingly erratic during perimenopause, these systems also become less stable. This is one reason why symptoms can feel so varied.
At the same time, many of the risk factors for chronic disease begin to emerge. Research consistently demonstrates that the menopause transition is associated with increases in:
blood pressure
insulin resistance
visceral fat
LDL cholesterol and ApoB-containing lipoproteins
systemic inflammation
endothelial dysfunction
sleep disturbance
sympathetic nervous system activation
loss of muscle mass
reduction in bone density
These physiological changes contribute not only to symptoms such as fatigue, poor concentration and weight gain, but also to the increased lifetime risk of cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, type 2 diabetes and cognitive decline observed after menopause. The encouraging news is that many of these changes occur gradually and can often be detected before disease develops.
This is where health technology becomes genuinely useful. Rather than simply counting steps or calories, today's wearable devices allow women to monitor trends in recovery, cardiovascular function, sleep quality and metabolic health. While no gadget replaces medical assessment, these objective measurements can help identify patterns that might otherwise go unnoticed. For many women, this shifts the focus from reacting to illness towards proactively supporting long-term health.
From Symptom Tracking to Understanding Your Physiology
One of the biggest frustrations women experience during perimenopause is the unpredictability of symptoms. You may sleep well for three nights, then suddenly wake drenched in sweat. Some weeks your workouts feel effortless. The next week they leave you exhausted. Your resting heart rate increases for no obvious reason. Stress feels overwhelming despite doing everything "right".
Without objective data, it can be difficult to understand what is driving these fluctuations. Health gadgets don't tell the whole story—but they can reveal patterns.
For example, wearable technology may show:
a gradual decline in heart rate variability before periods of increased stress
elevated overnight body temperature before hot flushes become noticeable
poorer sleep recovery after alcohol
increased resting heart rate during times of illness or chronic stress
higher blood pressure during particularly demanding periods at work
changes in body composition despite minimal changes in weight
Viewed in isolation, these measurements mean very little. Combined with symptoms, blood test results, menstrual cycle changes, lifestyle factors and functional medicine assessment, they provide valuable context that can guide more personalised interventions.
Health Gadget #1: A Home Blood Pressure Monitor
Why blood pressure deserves more attention during menopause
Cardiovascular disease remains the leading cause of death in women, yet awareness is surprisingly low. Many women are diligent about attending breast screening or cervical screening but are unaware that heart disease poses a much greater lifetime risk. One reason is that blood pressure often rises silently during the menopause transition.
As oestrogen levels fluctuate and eventually decline, blood vessels become less elastic and produce less nitric oxide—a molecule that helps arteries relax and maintain healthy blood flow. At the same time, sympathetic nervous system activity often increases, inflammation rises and insulin resistance becomes more common. Together, these changes can contribute to elevated blood pressure. Because hypertension rarely causes symptoms in its early stages, many women have no idea that their cardiovascular risk is increasing.
What is a home blood pressure monitor?
A home blood pressure monitor is a small electronic device that measures the pressure inside your arteries using an inflatable cuff placed around your upper arm.
Most validated devices provide two readings:
Systolic blood pressure — the pressure when the heart contracts.
Diastolic blood pressure — the pressure when the heart relaxes between beats.
Many devices also measure resting pulse rate and can identify irregular heart rhythms that may warrant further investigation.
Why regular monitoring is helpful
Home monitoring often provides a more accurate picture than occasional measurements taken in clinic. Some people experience "white coat hypertension", where anxiety temporarily raises blood pressure during appointments. Others have masked hypertension, where clinic readings appear normal despite consistently elevated blood pressure at home. Recording blood pressure over several days allows trends to emerge and helps clinicians make more informed decisions.
Health Gadget #2: The Oura Ring
A tiny wearable with surprisingly powerful insights
Among wearable health devices currently available, the Oura Ring has one of the strongest scientific evidence bases. Unlike many fitness trackers that focus primarily on exercise, the Oura Ring is designed to monitor how your body recovers.
It continuously measures multiple physiological signals, including:
sleep duration
sleep stages
resting heart rate
heart rate variability (HRV)
overnight body temperature
respiratory rate
activity levels
recovery status
Because these measurements are collected continuously over weeks and months, the device becomes increasingly personalised. Rather than comparing you with the general population, it learns what is normal for your own physiology and highlights meaningful deviations from your baseline.
Why this matters during perimenopause
Many of the earliest changes women notice during perimenopause involve sleep and nervous system regulation.
Falling asleep may become more difficult.
You may wake repeatedly during the night.
Hot flushes interrupt deep sleep.
Stress feels harder to recover from.
Exercise that once felt energising suddenly leaves you exhausted.
These experiences often reflect changes in autonomic nervous system regulation, hormonal fluctuations and altered recovery capacity. The Oura Ring provides objective measures that can help make sense of these changes.
Heart Rate Variability (HRV)
Heart rate variability measures the small variation in time between heartbeats.
Contrary to what many people assume, a healthy heart does not beat like a metronome. Greater beat-to-beat variation generally reflects better autonomic flexibility and resilience.
Lower HRV has been associated with chronic stress, poor sleep, inflammation and increased cardiovascular risk. Several studies suggest HRV may also decline during the menopause transition as parasympathetic (rest and recover) activity decreases. Tracking HRV can therefore provide valuable insight into how well your nervous system is coping with stress and recovery.
Resting Heart Rate
An increase in resting heart rate may occur with illness, poor sleep, alcohol consumption, chronic stress, overtraining or hormonal changes. Many women notice subtle increases during perimenopause long before recognising other symptoms.
Monitoring trends rather than individual readings helps identify lifestyle factors that may be placing additional strain on the body.
Sleep Architecture
One of the Oura Ring's greatest strengths is its sleep analysis.
It estimates:
deep sleep
REM sleep
sleep efficiency
sleep timing
overnight movement
recovery during sleep
While wearable devices cannot match the accuracy of laboratory polysomnography, validation studies demonstrate that the Oura Ring performs well for estimating total sleep time, sleep timing and overnight physiological trends. This makes it particularly useful for women trying to understand why they continue to feel tired despite spending enough hours in bed.
Body Temperature Trends
The Oura Ring continuously tracks overnight skin temperature. Although it is not designed to diagnose fever or menopause, changes in temperature patterns can provide useful insight into hormonal fluctuations, illness or recovery. Many women notice temperature elevations around ovulation, during illness or when experiencing frequent night sweats. Tracking these trends alongside symptoms can help identify patterns that might otherwise be missed.
BUT….Why I recommend wearable data with caution
This is my absolute favourite health gadget and I have been wearing one for several years now. But one of the greatest strengths of wearable technology is also one of its biggest limitations. More data is not always better. Some women become increasingly anxious about achieving the "perfect" sleep score or recovery score, a phenomenon sometimes referred to as orthosomnia. The aim should never be to optimise numbers for their own sake. Instead, these devices work best when they are used as tools for curiosity rather than judgement. The numbers provide context—not a diagnosis.
When combined with symptoms, lifestyle assessment, comprehensive blood testing and clinical interpretation, wearable technology can become a valuable part of a personalised functional medicine approach to health.
Health Gadget #3: Smart Body Composition Scales
Why your weight only tells part of the story
One of the biggest frustrations I hear from women during perimenopause is:
"I'm eating well, exercising regularly, but the scales keep creeping up."
It's understandable to focus on body weight. After all, it's the number we've been taught to watch for decades. But the reality is that your weight tells you very little about what's actually happening inside your body.
Imagine two women who both weigh 70 kg. One has maintained a healthy amount of muscle and gained very little abdominal fat. The other has gradually lost muscle while accumulating visceral fat around her organs. Although the scales show the same number, their metabolic health, insulin sensitivity, cardiovascular risk and future risk of frailty may be dramatically different.
This is why, in clinic, I rarely use weight as the primary measure of progress. Instead, I'm far more interested in body composition—how much of your body is made up of muscle, fat, bone and water.
During perimenopause, this becomes especially important because the hormonal changes taking place can alter body composition long before there is a significant change in body weight.
Why body composition changes during perimenopause
One of oestrogen's many roles is regulating how and where energy is stored.
During our reproductive years, women naturally tend to store more fat around the hips and thighs. This pattern is thought to support pregnancy and breastfeeding and is generally associated with a lower cardiometabolic risk.
As oestrogen levels fluctuate and decline, however, fat storage gradually shifts towards the abdomen. At the same time, several other physiological changes occur:
muscle protein synthesis becomes less efficient
insulin sensitivity declines
mitochondrial energy production becomes less efficient
resting energy expenditure decreases slightly
chronic low-grade inflammation may increase
recovery from exercise often slows
periods of poor sleep and chronic stress become more common
Together, these changes create the perfect environment for what researchers sometimes describe as adverse body recomposition—a gradual increase in fat mass alongside a reduction in lean muscle mass. Importantly, these changes can occur without a large increase in body weight. This explains why many women say:
"My weight hasn't changed very much, but my clothes fit differently."
They're often right.
What are smart body composition scales?
Smart body composition scales use a technique called bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA). A tiny, painless electrical current passes through the body. Because muscle, fat and water conduct electricity differently, sophisticated algorithms estimate different aspects of body composition.
Modern devices can provide measurements including:
body fat percentage
visceral fat rating
skeletal muscle mass
lean body mass
bone mass (estimated)
total body water
segmental muscle distribution (some models)
basal metabolic rate (estimated)
Although these measurements are estimates rather than direct measurements, they become incredibly useful when repeated under consistent conditions over time. The trend is far more valuable than any single reading.
Which body composition scales are best?
There are now several high-quality home devices available.
Tanita
Tanita is one of the pioneers of bioelectrical impedance technology and remains widely used in clinical practice.
Strengths include:
validated BIA technology
reliable tracking of long-term trends
visceral fat rating
muscle mass estimates
wide range of professional and consumer models
It offers an excellent balance between affordability and clinical usefulness.
Withings Body Comp
Withings combines body composition with cardiovascular monitoring.
Depending on the model, it can provide:
body composition
pulse wave velocity (an indicator of arterial stiffness)
vascular age
standing heart rate
nerve health assessment (selected models)
This makes it particularly appealing for women interested in both metabolic and cardiovascular health.
InBody
InBody systems are commonly used in sports medicine, physiotherapy and functional medicine clinics. Unlike many home scales, they use multi-frequency bioelectrical impedance, which tends to provide more detailed analysis of:
regional muscle mass
body water distribution
extracellular versus intracellular water
muscle symmetry
While generally more expensive, they are particularly useful when monitoring muscle preservation during weight loss or recovery from illness.
Why visceral fat deserves your attention
One of the most useful measurements available on many body composition scales is the estimate of visceral fat. Unlike the fat beneath the skin that we can pinch (subcutaneous fat), visceral fat sits deep within the abdominal cavity surrounding organs such as the liver, pancreas and intestines. Metabolically, it behaves very differently.
Visceral fat acts almost like an endocrine organ, releasing inflammatory signalling molecules known as adipokines. Excess visceral fat has been linked to:
insulin resistance
type 2 diabetes
cardiovascular disease
hypertension
non-alcoholic fatty liver disease
chronic inflammation
cognitive decline
certain cancers
Research consistently shows that visceral fat increases during the menopause transition—even in women whose body weight changes very little. This is one of the reasons why maintaining metabolic health during midlife is so important.
Muscle is your metabolic insurance policy
If I could encourage every woman to monitor just one aspect of body composition, it wouldn't actually be body fat. It would be muscle mass. We often think of muscle as something that helps us lift shopping bags or improves athletic performance. In reality, skeletal muscle is one of the body's largest and most metabolically active organs.
Healthy muscle:
improves insulin sensitivity
acts as the body's largest glucose reservoir
supports healthy mitochondria
increases metabolic flexibility
protects bone density
reduces falls and fractures
improves mobility and independence with age
Loss of muscle—known as sarcopenia—is increasingly recognised as one of the major drivers of frailty and loss of independence later in life. Fortunately, it is not inevitable.
Resistance training, adequate dietary protein, sufficient recovery and good metabolic health all help preserve muscle through the menopause transition.
Watching muscle mass remain stable—or ideally increase—can be a much more meaningful marker of progress than watching body weight fall.
The gold standard: DEXA scanning
While smart scales are extremely useful, it's important to understand their limitations. The current gold standard for measuring body composition is a DEXA (Dual-Energy X-ray Absorptiometry) scan.
Most people associate DEXA with osteoporosis screening, but modern scanners provide far more information than bone density alone. A DEXA scan can accurately measure:
total lean muscle mass
body fat percentage
visceral fat
regional fat distribution
appendicular muscle mass
bone mineral density
Because DEXA directly measures body composition rather than estimating it, it is considerably more accurate than bioelectrical impedance.
For women approaching or after menopause, a DEXA scan can provide valuable baseline information about both bone health and body composition. However, because it requires specialist equipment and is relatively expensive, most women are unlikely to have one performed regularly.
This is where home body composition scales become so useful. While they cannot match DEXA for absolute accuracy, they are excellent for tracking meaningful changes over months and years.
Health Gadget #4: Continuous Glucose Monitors (CGMs)
One of the most powerful tools for understanding your metabolism
Of all the health technologies now available to consumers, continuous glucose monitors have arguably changed our understanding of metabolic health more than any other. For decades, assessing blood sugar meant a single fasting glucose measurement during an annual health check.
While useful, this provides only a snapshot. A continuous glucose monitor tells a much richer story. Instead of one reading, it records your glucose levels every few minutes throughout the day and night, creating a detailed picture of how your body responds to food, exercise, stress, sleep and everyday life.
For women navigating perimenopause, this information can be incredibly revealing.
What is a continuous glucose monitor?
A CGM is a small sensor worn on the back of the upper arm. Using a tiny filament placed just beneath the skin, it measures glucose levels in the interstitial fluid surrounding your cells every few minutes.
The information is transmitted wirelessly to a smartphone app, allowing you to see:
your current glucose level
glucose trends throughout the day
responses to individual meals
overnight glucose patterns
time spent within your target range
the speed at which glucose rises and falls
Most sensors remain in place for around 14 days before being replaced. Unlike traditional finger-prick testing, CGMs provide continuous data with very little effort.
Why glucose matters during perimenopause
Many women assume blood sugar only becomes important if they develop diabetes.
In reality, glucose regulation begins to change years before diabetes develops. One of oestrogen's important metabolic roles is improving insulin sensitivity.
As hormone levels fluctuate during perimenopause:
muscle becomes less responsive to insulin
liver glucose production may increase
visceral fat accumulates more easily
inflammation increases
sleep disruption worsens insulin resistance
cortisol has a greater impact on glucose regulation
The result is that blood sugar often becomes more variable. This may contribute to symptoms such as:
fatigue after meals
energy crashes
sugar cravings
increased hunger
brain fog
difficulty losing weight
reduced exercise recovery
These changes frequently occur while standard blood tests remain within the normal reference range.
Looking beyond blood sugar: understanding metabolic flexibility
One of the biggest misconceptions about CGMs is that they're simply measuring whether your blood sugar is "too high." In reality, they're revealing something much more interesting. They provide insight into your metabolic flexibility—your body's ability to adapt efficiently to changing energy demands.
A metabolically flexible person typically:
experiences modest glucose rises after meals
returns to baseline efficiently
switches easily between burning carbohydrate and fat
maintains stable energy levels throughout the day
Reduced metabolic flexibility is often characterised by:
larger glucose spikes
prolonged elevations after meals
reactive dips in glucose
greater day-to-day variability
These patterns may reflect early insulin resistance, chronic stress, poor sleep, low muscle mass or reduced physical activity—often years before diabetes develops.
What can a CGM teach you?
One of the most fascinating aspects of CGMs is how individual our responses are. Two people can eat the same breakfast and experience completely different glucose responses.
Many women are surprised to discover that:
poor sleep causes higher glucose the following day
psychological stress can raise glucose almost as much as a sugary meal
a short walk after eating dramatically reduces glucose excursions
resistance training improves glucose control for hours afterwards
alcohol often disrupts overnight glucose regulation
eating protein before carbohydrate reduces glucose spikes
meal timing matters just as much as food choice
These personalised insights often become far more motivating than generic dietary advice.
A note of balance
Continuous glucose monitors are exciting tools, but they aren't necessary for everyone. It's also important not to become overly focused on achieving "perfect" glucose graphs.
Temporary rises in glucose after meals are entirely normal and essential. The aim isn't to eliminate glucose excursions altogether, but to understand your body's patterns, what factors impact your blood glucose levels and use that information to make informed choices.
For women with obesity, pre-diabetes, insulin resistance, polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), gestational diabetes history or significant metabolic risk factors, CGMs can be particularly valuable.
For others, they may simply offer a fascinating short-term learning experience rather than something that needs to be worn continuously.
Health Gadget #5: A Grip Strength Dynamometer
One of the simplest tests you'll probably never hear about
If I asked you to name the most important marker of healthy ageing, you might think of cholesterol, blood pressure or body weight. But what if I told you that one of the strongest predictors of future health can be measured in less than a minute—with a device that fits in the palm of your hand?
Grip strength may seem like an unusual thing to measure, yet it has become one of the most widely studied indicators of healthy ageing. In fact, many geriatricians and longevity researchers now consider it a functional vital sign because of its close relationship with overall health, independence and longevity.
Unlike many health gadgets that estimate physiological changes indirectly, a grip strength dynamometer measures something highly practical: your ability to generate force. As we age, that simple measurement tells us a remarkable amount about how well the body is functioning.
What is a grip strength dynamometer?
A grip strength dynamometer is a handheld device that measures the maximum force you can generate when squeezing the handle. The test takes only a few seconds, is painless and requires very little training.
Most clinicians ask you to squeeze the device as hard as possible two or three times with each hand before recording the highest result. While this may sound simplistic, grip strength reflects far more than the strength of your hands.
It provides insight into:
overall skeletal muscle strength
neuromuscular function
muscle quality
nutritional status
healthy ageing
physical resilience
Why grip strength matters during perimenopause
During the menopause transition, women naturally begin to lose skeletal muscle mass and muscle power. This process is influenced by several factors, including:
declining oestrogen
reduced muscle protein synthesis
mitochondrial ageing
increasing insulin resistance
lower levels of physical activity
inadequate dietary protein
chronic inflammation
Importantly, muscle strength often declines before significant muscle loss can be detected. This means grip strength may identify early changes that body composition measurements alone can miss.
Research has shown that lower grip strength is associated with:
frailty
falls
fractures
disability
poorer bone health
reduced quality of life
cardiovascular disease
hospitalisation
all-cause mortality
In other words, maintaining muscle strength is about much more than remaining physically active—it's about preserving health and independence for decades to come.
Strength is one of the best predictors of healthy ageing
One of the reasons grip strength has become so valuable is that it reflects the combined health of multiple body systems. To generate a strong grip, you need healthy:
muscles
nerves
brain signalling
joints
connective tissue
energy production within your cells
A decline in strength often reflects changes occurring across the whole body rather than in the hands alone.
Health Gadget #6: Pelvic Floor Trainers
A forgotten group of muscles that deserve much more attention
The pelvic floor rarely features in conversations about health until something goes wrong. Yet these muscles play an essential role throughout a woman's life.
They support the bladder, bowel and uterus, contribute to core stability, help maintain continence and play an important role in sexual function.
During perimenopause and menopause, however, changes in hormone levels can affect both the pelvic floor muscles and the surrounding connective tissues. The result? Many women begin to experience symptoms they simply accept as "part of getting older." These may include:
leaking urine when coughing or exercising
urinary urgency
increased frequency
reduced pelvic support
discomfort during sex
reduced sexual sensation
The encouraging news is that many of these symptoms can improve with appropriate pelvic floor training.
What is a pelvic floor trainer?
Pelvic floor trainers are small devices designed to help women perform pelvic floor muscle exercises more effectively. Rather than simply asking you to squeeze the muscles correctly—which can be surprisingly difficult—many modern devices provide real-time feedback through a smartphone app.
Examples include devices such as the Elvie Trainer and Perifit. These trainers use gentle sensors to measure muscle contractions and guide users through interactive exercise programmes. The visual feedback helps many women identify whether they are activating the correct muscles and track improvements over time.
Why pelvic floor health changes during menopause
Oestrogen supports the health of the pelvic tissues by helping maintain:
collagen
elastin
blood supply
tissue hydration
muscle function
connective tissue strength
As hormone levels decline, these tissues gradually become thinner and less elastic.
Pregnancy, childbirth, ageing, chronic constipation, obesity and high-impact exercise can add further strain.
The pelvic floor muscles themselves may also weaken if they are not used effectively. The combination of hormonal and mechanical changes explains why urinary symptoms often become more noticeable during midlife.
The evidence for pelvic floor training
Pelvic floor muscle training is one of the most evidence-based non-surgical treatments available for stress urinary incontinence. Multiple systematic reviews and clinical guidelines recommend supervised or guided pelvic floor exercises as a first-line intervention for many women. Research has shown that regular training can:
reduce urinary leakage
improve bladder control
improve pelvic floor strength
enhance quality of life
improve sexual function in some women
Digital trainers appear to improve adherence by making exercises more engaging and providing objective feedback. Like any exercise programme, however, results depend on consistency.
How to Choose Health Technology That Truly Supports Your Health
Health technology is evolving at an extraordinary pace. New devices appear almost weekly, each promising to optimise health, improve longevity or reverse ageing.
The reality is that not every gadget is worth your time—or your money.
Before investing in any health technology, ask yourself three simple questions:
1. Does it measure something that matters?
Choose devices that monitor physiological markers linked to long-term health, such as blood pressure, sleep quality, body composition or cardiovascular fitness, rather than metrics with little clinical relevance.
2. Is the data actionable?
The most valuable gadgets help you make better decisions.
For example, discovering that alcohol consistently raises your resting heart rate and disrupts deep sleep, or that resistance training is preserving your muscle mass, gives you information you can use to improve your health.
3. Is there scientific evidence behind it?
Look for devices that have been validated against recognised clinical standards and whose measurements have been independently assessed in peer-reviewed research.
Marketing claims can often outpace the science.
My approach to FemTech: Technology should support—not replace—your intuition
The rapid growth of FemTech is incredibly exciting. For the first time, women have access to tools that allow them to monitor changes in sleep, metabolism, cardiovascular health, muscle, pelvic health and skin in ways that simply weren't possible a decade ago.
But the most valuable health gadget is not necessarily the one with the most sensors or the highest price tag.
It's the one that helps you understand your body better and encourages positive, sustainable habits.
Technology should never leave you feeling anxious or overwhelmed by numbers. Instead, it should provide meaningful insights that empower you to ask better questions, make informed decisions and have more productive conversations with your healthcare practitioner.
As a functional medicine practitioner, I see these devices as pieces of a much larger picture. They don't replace listening to your symptoms, carrying out appropriate investigations or addressing the root causes of ill health. Rather, they add another layer of information that helps us understand how your body is adapting to the profound physiological changes of perimenopause.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is FemTech?
Until surprisingly recently, most medical research and healthcare technology were designed around men. Women have unique physiological changes throughout life—monthly hormonal fluctuations, pregnancy, postpartum recovery and menopause—all of which influence metabolism, cardiovascular health, immune function, sleep, mood and cognitive performance. Yet these changes have historically been underrepresented in research and healthcare innovation.
FemTech (female technology) is a rapidly growing area of healthcare focused on technologies designed specifically to support women's health. It includes wearable devices, digital health platforms, fertility monitors, pelvic floor trainers, menopause apps and home health monitoring equipment. The aim is to help women better understand their health, identify changes earlier and make more informed decisions alongside their healthcare providers.
What are the best health gadgets for women during perimenopause?
The best health gadgets for women are the ones that provide meaningful data that can be used to help make choices that will improve symptoms and long-term health.
Can wearable technology diagnose menopause?
No.
Wearable devices cannot diagnose perimenopause or menopause. The diagnosis of perimenopause is based primarily on age, menstrual history and symptoms rather than blood tests or wearable data.
While devices such as the Oura Ring can detect physiological changes—including alterations in sleep, heart rate, body temperature and recovery—they cannot determine whether these changes are caused by hormonal fluctuations. Instead, they provide valuable context that can be interpreted alongside your symptoms and medical history.
Is the Oura Ring accurate?
The Oura Ring has one of the strongest validation studies among consumer wearable devices.
Research suggests it performs well for estimating:
total sleep time
resting heart rate
overnight heart rate variability
body temperature trends
It is less accurate for identifying individual sleep stages compared with laboratory polysomnography, which remains the gold standard for sleep assessment.
For most women, the greatest value lies in monitoring trends over weeks and months rather than focusing on any single night's score.
Why is heart rate variability (HRV) important during menopause?
Heart rate variability reflects how effectively your autonomic nervous system adapts to changing demands.
Higher HRV generally indicates greater resilience and better recovery, whereas lower HRV has been associated with:
chronic stress
poor sleep
inflammation
overtraining
cardiovascular disease
autonomic dysfunction
Several studies suggest HRV decreases during the menopause transition, partly due to declining oestrogen and reduced parasympathetic nervous system activity. Tracking HRV can help women understand how factors such as alcohol, stress, exercise, illness and sleep affect their recovery.
Should women monitor their blood pressure at home?
For many women, yes.
Blood pressure often begins to rise during the menopause transition without causing noticeable symptoms. Regular home monitoring can help detect changes earlier than occasional clinic measurements and provides a more representative picture of your usual blood pressure.
The British and European hypertension guidelines recommend validated home monitoring as an important part of diagnosing and managing hypertension.
Are body composition scales accurate?
Bioelectrical impedance scales are not perfect, and individual measurements can vary depending on hydration, exercise and recent food intake.
However, when measurements are taken consistently—for example, first thing in the morning under similar conditions—they are very useful for tracking long-term trends in:
muscle mass
body fat
visceral fat
hydration
The absolute numbers may not be exact, but changes over time can provide valuable information.
Why is preserving muscle more important than losing weight?
During perimenopause, many women become focused on reducing the number on the scales.
However, maintaining muscle is often a far more important health goal.
Muscle supports:
insulin sensitivity
glucose regulation
metabolic rate
bone strength
mobility
healthy ageing
Losing muscle while reducing body weight can actually worsen long-term metabolic health.
Instead of asking, "How much weight have I lost?", a more useful question is:
"Am I maintaining or building muscle while reducing excess body fat?"
Can health gadgets replace seeing a healthcare professional?
No.
Health gadgets provide information—not diagnoses.
They are most valuable when combined with:
your symptoms
your medical history
comprehensive blood testing where appropriate
physical examination
professional interpretation
Used in this way, they can help identify patterns earlier and support more personalised healthcare decisions.
Final Thoughts
Never before have women had access to so much information about their own health. Just a decade ago, understanding your sleep, cardiovascular function or body composition often required specialist clinics or expensive laboratory testing. Today, many of these insights are available from the comfort of your own home.
That doesn't mean we need more data for the sake of it. The real value of health technology lies in helping us ask better questions.
Why has my blood pressure increased?
Why has my recovery declined?
Why am I gaining visceral fat despite exercising regularly?
Why do I wake feeling exhausted after eight hours in bed?
These are questions that numbers alone cannot answer.
When interpreted alongside your symptoms, lifestyle, nutrition, blood chemistry and medical history, health gadgets become much more than interesting technology—they become another piece of the puzzle that helps us understand how your body is functioning.
As a functional medicine practitioner, I don't believe in chasing perfect scores or becoming overwhelmed by endless health metrics. Instead, I see these devices as tools that can help women become more connected to their physiology, recognise meaningful changes earlier and make informed decisions that support healthy ageing.
Perimenopause is a period of significant physiological change, but it is also an opportunity. By understanding what your body is telling you—and by using the right tools to monitor what truly matters—you can take proactive steps to protect your cardiovascular health, maintain muscle, improve metabolic resilience and support your wellbeing for decades to come.
Ultimately, the most powerful health gadget isn't the one that collects the most data. It's the one that helps you make better decisions.
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Medical Disclaimer
This article is intended for educational purposes only and should not be considered a substitute for personalised medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. While wearable health technology can provide valuable insights into your physiology, no device can diagnose or treat medical conditions. If you have concerns about your health, symptoms or the results from a health monitoring device, please seek advice from your GP or an appropriately qualified healthcare professional. Always consult your healthcare provider before making significant changes to your medication, exercise or treatment plan based on data from wearable devices.
About The Author
Michaela Newsom
Registered Nutritional Therapist, mBANT, rCNHC
Michaela is a women’s health expert with a specialist interest in the impact of menopause on the female brain. Her mission is to empower women to optimise their cognitive function and mental wellbeing throughout life with a special focus on the challenges that take place during perimenopause, menopause and beyond.
With a Postgraduate qualification in Personalised Nutrition and advanced Functional medicine training with IFM and the Kharrizian Institute Michaela has expertise spanning hormones, brain health, cognitive function and mood disorders.
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